I have to admit I was a bit sore prior to the lesson as we had yet another hay delivery, I got a brilliant back and upper body work out shifting all those bales! Lots of calories burnt…for me to replace with cake! These horses definitely eat better than I do, another big load to fill the barn just in case of any very bad weather and because I own 3 horses turned pigs! I also came up with the dumb idea of sorting the muck heap…alone (because I have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning…why I come up with these ideas I have no clue). Well they say time flies at the yard and that is very true – 1.5 hours later, the muck heap went from a spread mess to a compiled tidy mound with a twist (one of the other liveries said they thought I was going for an architectural award it looked so good haha!) We will see how long it lasts, but I have now scrubbed that idea from ever entering my head again due to the protests from my arms and shoulders afterwards! Roll on summer!
Autumns been on one in the field again, as when I brought her in for a bit of dressage schooling I noted a wound to her back leg – I’m sure her and Bob have competitions to see who can do the worst at times! Luckily it wasn’t too bad and after a wash and some wound cream she was good to go (much to her annoyance). We did some more dressage test practice, and I am now getting used to the longer stirrups (although my thighs protest majorly afterwards for a day or so!).I don’t think she was very focused this time as she did parts of the test nicely but then completely ignored me for other parts, so the session was not a complete success! I am going to introduce some pole work for her again and also try and do some road work next week end to break it up for her as she’s a horse that definitely gets bored easily.
The demon horse Aria, has reared her head again and been very stroppy this week, the temperatures have not been to her liking, nor has the fact that she has to do work in the evenings and be delayed munching her dinner. She has been very blatant in displaying her displeasure with me – carting round in the arena, nipping at me, alongside trying her best to trip me up whilst walking in and out from the field – she’s nearly had me over 3 times so far and I’m sure she will persist until she gets it right. Sometimes I wonder about this horse and why I keep her (mainly because no one else wants her ha – couldn’t even give her away to my friend – despite her frequently telling me how beautiful she is haha). Lucky for her I am used to her being like this, as I know she is just a grumpy bug, and despite her naughtiness the niceness (when it does appear) supersedes it to me, so I put up with her 😉
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Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.